Fire damaged part of a medieval timber-framed building used as a meditation centre in Abingdon.

Trustees of Saint Ethelwold's House, in East St Helen Street, praised firefighters from Abingdon and Didcot for containing the blaze.

The house is an inter-faith and meditation centre, but is closed while the rear of the property undergoes refurbishment.

One of the trustees, Susie Howard, said: "But for the rapid response of the fire crews we would have been facing a catastrophe. They saved the day.

"Another five minutes and the whole house would have been engulfed.

"It's going to cost a lot of money to restore the building, but fortunately the fire crews prevented it spreading to other rooms and the three-storey front of the building."

Neighbours raised the alarm when they saw smoke billowing out of the room on Sunday afternoon (July 7).

The house was empty at the time except for a dog called Chum, a terrier owned by one of six residents.

The dog escaped unharmed, but timber roof beams in the two-storey building were singed and blackened.

The front of the house is Georgian, but the rear buildings date from the Middle Ages.

An Abingdon fire service spokesman said it had been a "close call" but crews arrived just in time.

Investigations suggested the cause of the fire was an overheating cable in a washing machine, he added.